FlyTrapCare Forums

I was just wondering if someone out there could give me some advice on my plant. This is the larger of my 2 plants and noticed that there is a root poking out of the bottom of it's pot. This pot is only 3.5" dia x 3" tall. I have a 6.5" dia x 6" around the garden somewhere would that be a good size to repot in? In addition, would now be a good time to repot or does it really matter? Oh and one other thing.... I know I've read about what to use for media hundreds of times but would like to know what works best for people out there? I live in England if that makes any difference to what I should use. I'm still fairly new to the sceen so any advice is welcomed Thanks!

If I were in your position, I would absolutely repot. 6" deep is definitely not too deep. I have a pot that's close to 14" deep/wide with some relatively small flytraps in it and they thrive. For now 6" is plenty. Maybe repot to 8" or 10" next Spring depending on how big the flytrap is getting.

If it gets enough light (e.g. 6 hours or more sun per day) it will recover fine from a repotting; less sun than that and it may take longer to recover. It's still early enough in the season that it shouldn't be much of a problem.

Its growth will completely stop for a couple weeks after a repotting (due to shock), so keep that in mind. The pot size you mentioned would be great as long as it's plastic/glass/styrofoam. Just clean it out really well so any previous media is washed out completely, or as good as you can possibly get it.

The bigger pot will allow it to more easily divide this year so by the end of the year in that bigger pot (with more room for its roots to expand) you may end up with two or even three flytraps.

Be gentle with your flytrap's roots - messing with their roots is the reason they go into shock after repotting so the less you stress the roots, the faster the plant will recover. Try not to break any roots, as this will add to the shock, but don't stress if you do. I break roots on my flytraps all the time repotting and none have died - they just refuse to grow for a little longer.

As far as media, this article will explain: http://www.flytrapcare.com/media-soil-f ... traps.html (let us know if you have other questions)

I'll have to defer to someone who's in the UK for any specific brand recommendations, but in general as long as the peat/perlite/or silica sand is fertilizer-free with no "added nutrients" or anything like that, it should be fine.

Thanks for that reply Veronis, I'll get onto repotting my plant this weekend when I got time to go buy the stuff I need. Just thought I'd pick your brain about my smaller plant. My smaller plant already has 2 divisions. 1 division has tiny traps a couple of mm's in length, the 2nd has traps around 10mm in length. I've been told that they don't mind being crowded together when they are this small. I'm thinking that I should leave these plants as they are for now and wait until next spring before repotting these? They are in the same size pot as my larger plant.... any thoughts?

Divide them next year around March/April-ish 2011, just before they start coming out of dormancy.

Plants that divide in nature stay clumped on top of each other their entire life.

Also, I have some flytraps that have 4 or 5 divisions/plantlets that I've never divided and are now the same size as the parent plant, and they all seem to thrive happily. One of my plants divided so much it's putting up 7 flower stalks at the moment.

I think it's better for the plants not to uproot them any more often than you have to. Also I'm lazy, so when I re-pot I just go ahead and put them in a pot that they can live in indefinitely, or until they multiply and get so crowded they need to be divided. For me that means white, about a foot deep, standing in a pan of water. If you can't find a pot like that, an inexpensive wastebasket with some drainage holes works great.

When I transplant from a small pot like yours into a larger one, I try to keep the original soil intact and just plant the whole lump in the new pot. The plants don't seem to go into shock at all that way.

As far as soil mix goes, I plan to try some alternatives in the future, but so far I've never used anything but pure sphagnum peat moss, and my plants seem to be as healthy as anybody else's. Again: deeply lazy individual here. One of my favorite rules is abbreviated "KISS."